Kurdish counter-terror force denies role in killing of Qasem Soleimani

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Counter Terrorism Group (CTG) in Sulaimani has denied any involvement in the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, a day after a news report claiming a Kurdish role in the killing.

“We deny any involvement or awareness of our forces in such act,” reads a statement from the CTG sent to Rudaw English. “General Qasem Soleimani was a close friend of the late Mam Jalal [Talabani], and counter-terrorism units once fought on the frontlines against terrorism where Qasem Soleimani was also fighting.”

A report published by Yahoo News on Saturday claimed that the CTG played a “key role” in the January 3, 2020 assassination of Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport.

Members of the “Counter Terrorism Group (CTG), an elite Kurdish unit in northern Iraq with deep links to U.S. Special Operations,” were on the ground assisting the US teams, the report stated.

The assassination of Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who was with Soleimani, brought the region to the brink of war. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Iraq’s Ain al-Assad airbase, housing US forces and Iraqi militias stepped up their campaign to force American troops out of the country, carrying out frequent attacks on US interests.

According to the Yahoo report, plans to assassinate Soleimani had been sent to US President Donald Trump after a US contractor in Iraq was killed by Iranian proxies in a rocket attack late December 2019. Kurdish operatives reportedly infiltrated the airport as ground crew and baggage handlers in order to identify Soleimani when he stepped off the plane. They also assisted a sniper team that was backup in case the drone strike failed.

Former acting US Defense Secretary Chris Miller described it as “the most sophisticated prep the department has done.”

According to Yahoo, a Kurdish operative took evidence from the scene to identify Soleimani’s body. “After the strike, according to two U.S. officials, a Kurdish operative disguised as an Iraqi police officer walked up to the wreckage of Soleimani’s vehicle, snapped photographs and quickly obtained a tissue sample for DNA confirmation before walking away and vanishing into the night,” the report stated.

The CTG, which is aligned with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), has not previously commented on any involvement in the assassination. The PUK enjoys good relations with Iran and several members of the party visited the Iranian consulate in Sulaimani after January 3 to pay their respects, among them Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani.

The CTG statement says it is unclear whether the authors of the Yahoo report were pointing at them or another Kurdish counter-terrorism force, controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). A co-author the report, Jack Murphy, however, stated that he means the PUK-aligned force.

Murphy also claimed that the CTG’s involvement with the US dates back to prior to the 2003 invasion.

The Iranian and Iraqi governments created a joint team to investigate the assassination, but it has not yet publicized any results of their probe.

Updated at 12:04 pm

Kurdish counter-terror force denies role in killing of Qasem Soleimani

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